To Bully or Not To Bully? That Is The

Question.Assignment 2 Original

By Cheris BeatyConcordia University Chicago

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IntroductionYou are a student at North Elementary

School in Des Plaines, Illinois. You moved here last year and are still getting to know some of the other students at North. You have a best friend but that friend is in another class this year. You are feeling a little lonely this year in your new classroom without your friend.

ChoicesYou are going to have a few choices to make as you continue your school day. Make sure that you really think about what is the best thing to do for each situation that you come across.

Situation #1You arrive to school today and you overhear

a group of little kids talking about how excited they are to have pizza for lunch today. You get so excited about it too until you realize that you forgot to bring money for lunch.

You see one of the kids is real little. You could easily take the money from the kid. No teachers are looking. No one will notice.

Do you steal the money?

or

Overhear = to hear someone speak without meaning to

Yes No

Yes You Steal ItYou are about to put the money in your pocket

when a teacher taps you on your shoulder. Busted!

The teacher makes you apologize in front of all the popular kids, who are now looking at you with evil eyes. You are worried that they will not want to be your friend now.

The teacher tells you that you have to be in Safety Town during recess today so that you can write a formal apology for bullying the little kid and stealing the money.

To Be a BullyThe other kids at school think you are a bully

and are unsure if they can trust you. You have lost a few friends because you stole money.

During morning arrival now, you must be in the office to help prevent you from bullying other students. You are also learning how to be safe, caring, respectful, and ready in Safety Town. Hopefully one day you can change your ways and not be a bully anymore.

To lose someone’s trust means that they can’t count on you to be their friend.

No You Didn’t Steal You decide that you don’t want to be known

as a bully. You would rather make friends than be mean to them. Instead you decide to start talking to the little kids and ask them what kind of pizza they like, which leads into a good friendship. Other kids your age join in on the fun conversation.

You are making great choices to be a safe, caring, and respectful student at North.

Situation #2During guided reading class, your group is in

charge of your own discussion about the book. You have a lot of great ideas that you want to share but one student keeps talking over you and interrupting you when you start to share your ideas.

This aggravates you and you are very upset with this person. You don’t know what to do. Do you try to get even by starting some kind of fake rumor about this person or do you shake it off and move on with the assignment?

Shake It Off = to ignore the problem

Start Rumor or Shake It Off

Start a RumorYou start telling others in the group a rumor

about the person who was annoying you. Before you know it, that person overhears the rumor and starts yelling at you. The two of you are now yelling at each other in the middle of guided reading class.

The teacher has to stop class to resolve the situation. Not only are you in trouble with the teacher, but the other students in the class know you tell lies. You can see that they don’t like you now because you are a bully. This makes you feel even worse than you felt before.

To Be a BullyThe kids in your class think you are a bully and

are scared of you. You have lost all the friends that you did have. No one trusts you anymore, not even the teacher. You start telling your parents you are sick so that you don’t have to go to school anymore. Your grades start to fall.

You no longer have recess because you must be in Safety Town everyday to help prevent you from bullying other students. You are also learning how to be safe, caring, respectful, and ready in Safety Town. Hopefully one day you can change your ways and not be a bully anymore.

Shake If OffYou decide to take some deep breaths, which

you learned in your Calm Classroom exercises. This helps you to shake off your frustration. Then you decide to go sit next to this person and tell them how you feel and that you would like an opportunity to share your ideas too.

This person apologizes to the group for not realizing that they were not letting others share. Because you decided not to be a bully, you and this person find out you have many things in common and start being friends.

Situation #3On the bus going home, you see a kid in

your grade steal your little sister’s snack. This infuriates you because your little sister is the nicest kid. She probably would have given up her snack if the kid had asked.

But now she is crying and you have to decide if you are going to be a bully too and go fight this other bully or if you are going to problem solve with this bully.

Be a Bully or Problem Solve

Be a BullyYou walk up to the kid, who bullied your

sister, and punch the bully in the stomach. The bully retaliates and gives you a black eye. Not only are you in a lot of pain, but you are suspended from the bus for a week.

This whole incident goes on your permanent record. Your parents are very disappointed in you. They now have to find other arrangements for you to get to school and they are not happy about this.

retaliates = to fight backsuspended = removed

Problem SolveYou remember from class that being a bully

to another bully just continues the problem and you get into trouble too. So instead, you walk up to the bully and problem solve the issue of the bully taking your sister’s snack.

Luckily, the bully realizes that taking the snack was the wrong thing to do, apologizes, and gives back the snack. In the end, your caring sister shares half her snack with the bully. You all become friends.

To Be a BullyThe other kids at school think you are a bully and no

longer include you in their games. You have lost all the friends that you did have, even the one best friend you had from last year. No one trusts you anymore. You start skipping school more often and your grades are falling even faster. What’s worse is that learning is starting to get hard because you are missing so much school.

You have lost all privileges for the year and you can’t go on any more field trips. You must be in Safety Town everyday to help prevent you from bullying other students. You are also learning how to be safe, caring, respectful, and ready in Safety Town. Hopefully one day you can change your ways and not be a bully anymore.

privileges = the right to do things

To Not Be a BullyPeople who are not bullies gain more friends and

respect from others. These people can calm their emotions before they act negatively toward others.

When you can problem solve in a positive way, problems solve themselves a lot quicker and with less anger. Also, when this happen, more people feel safe to be around you in that environment.

Congratulations on not being a bully and for making safe, caring, and respectful choices.

Or Start over

Hit escape to end

To Not Be a BullyPeople who are not bullies gain more friends and

respect from others. These people can calm their emotions before they act negatively toward others.

When you can problem solve in a positive way, problems solve themselves a lot quicker and with less anger. Also, when this happen, more people feel safe to be around you in that environment.

Hopefully you can learn to be safe, caring, responsible, and ready, which will help you to not be a bully.

Or Start over

Hit escape to end